The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-02-23
Young Men Whose Sole Ambition II
Along the Line of Dress.

We have young men here whose sole am
bition is along the line of dress, the 'eter-
nal fitness of things to wear; not alone
men who wear morning, afternoon and even
ing costumes while in the city; not alone
men, so to speak, who change their suits
half a dozen times q day at fashionable
watering places during tho summer, but
men who have special suits for specific oc-
casions.
As, for instance, they are at the seashore.
A boating excursion, yachting or otherwise,
is planned. They loom up in full sailor rig.
A tramp across the hills or elsewhere is on
the programme. They join it with a fault
less pedestrian costume, from cap to shoes,
with staff thrown in. They wear plain
duck, with pumps and boutonniere, as they
read the morning paper and smoke fra
grant Havana on the broad hotel piazza.
They attend the evening concert in elabo-
rate evening dress. Their head gear cor
responds with their other attire, and every
thing matches all else besides. In no whit
do these seublances of mankind differ from
their sisters, their cousins or their aunts
in this all asorbing occupation.
woman of fashion has as many parasols
as she has street dresses. This hat goes with
this costume This parasol with that hat.
Some even go so far as to have puppy dogs
to match the color of their dress, and it Is
a cold day when any acrid critic of similar
gender can point the finger of detection at
any garment of inharmony upon the shoul-
ders the head the feet or the hands of these
fashionable cranks of gentility.
To a certain extent these people can be
called fashionable, 1 suppose, although 1t
would be absurd to say that such idiocy as
this is the fashion with any considerable
portion of New York people. Enough,
however, to form a very marked group are
here, and their conspicuosity, their promi-
nence attracts attention to such degree by
the very fact of their oddity, their peculiar
ity, as to lead the thoughtless to overesti-
mate their numerical strength. The in
creasing wealth of many New York families
is undoubtedly the secret of many curious
customs that are little by little obtaining
foothold here. There was a time, when
New York was further down town than it is
now that a very pleasant social custom OBJ
tanned ON New Years day. The population
was small and social circles were limited.
They were less cut up into cliques and
church sets than they are now, and the
radius of habitation was smaller. Then it
was possible for a gentleman between the
hours of D in the morning and at night,
to cover his social acquaintanceship with q
call in which ceremony and sOciability
went hand in hand, when a call was some
thing more than a firt, when the object
sought was not a list as long as the moral
law, when women estimated the pleasure of
the day by the satisfaction derived from
seeing friends, rather than counting up
score after score of pulls at her door bell.
OF late years, the city having grown so
that even elevated trains are unable to sup
ply the demand for rapid transit it has be-
come a simple physical impossibility for any
man to approximately comply with this so
cial custom, and it is several years now since
1t was regarded as a social duty. In fact,
SO grossly abused have been the hospitali-
ties, SO egregiously asinine have been the
developments of the suddenly rich along the
line Of display, that quiet and respectable
people, who care more for old fashioned
courtesy and lifelong friendship than for
the hipoa compliments Of noodledum,
have little by little withdrawn from par
ticipation in the custom of receiving or pay
ing New Years calls
Others who dislike exceedingly to give up
all recognition of the day content them
selves by sending cards, very tame and
unexciting mode for one to inform his
friends that he still lives and holds them in
his memory.-Joe Howard in Boston Globe